Chintadhara - a thought process

Today I was exploring the Windows Live services when I stumbled upon Windows Live Essentials . It’s something similar to Google Pack , though Google Pack has much more richer collection of free apps whereas Windows Live Essentials is a collection of free desktop applications from Microsoft. Some the apps included are the replacements of current Windows applications. Windows Live Mail replacing Windows Mail/Outlook Express Windows Live Messenger replacing MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger Windows Live Photo Gallery replacing Windows Photo Gallery Windows Live Movie Maker beta replacing Windows Movie Maker Additional to above Windows Live Writer is also included. It is a desktop blog-publishing app which features WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing, map-publishing, and video-publishing functionality. And the best part is that it supports all major blogging services including Blogger , Wordpress , LiveJournal , and TypePad , amongst others. I just now installed Windows ...

www.bing.com This is the latest web search offering from Microsoft , which calls it a Decision Engine as it is supposed to help make decisions apart from searching. Read here what Microsoft has to say about it. Anyway I decided to bing the web and see what it can show me. From the first impression I feel Microsoft finally seems to be understand how things should work on internet. The interface is neat and simple, though bit heavy with graphics. The web search has some nice features like ability to suggest related searches, provide a preview to page contents without opening and also suggested alternatives for the search result. Shopping search is where I found Bing really good. It could help compare prices, show reviews, product pictures, and even offers cashbacks!! Also I liked the bird's eye view of the Bing Map search , which is based on the Microsoft Virtual Earth now called Bing Maps for Enterprise. Overall impressive, I will not compare it with Google search yet. Mainly b...

Reading is a very favorite hobby of mine which had taken a back-seat for quite sometime now, except my reading the Times of India newspaper daily and reading news articles on ibnlive.in.com . Till a few years back I used to read novels very frequently, mainly from fiction (crime, detective, mystery) genre apart from a couple of biographies also. The part reason for this hobby of mine taking a back-seat are the genres themselves. You need continuous time to read them, as it's very difficult to break in between, at least for me. But very recently I got a chance to bring back this hobby of mine to focus. On my journey back to New Delhi from Kolkata on Rajdhani express I had all the time in the world. So I decided to pick up a novel to read on the train from the Howrah station . I choose The Chamber by John Grisham . Genre wise (legal thriller) it was new to me. I did manage to read a substantial part of the novel in the train but finished the remaining part at my home after reach...

I am referring to the recently concluded IPL T20 tournament in South Africa. After a close fight between Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers in the finals, Deccan Chargers became the champions. I usually do not follow cricket matches ball by ball because they are bit longer, even T20 format to some extent, but I do follow the results. Anyways that's not the reason for this post, something else caught my attention. Both Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers are the teams which finished bottom of the table in the last edition of IPL , and this year they both did a perfect turnaround. Well lot of credit goes to there respective new captains Adam Gilchrist and Anil Kumble . Interestingly, in the last edition of IPL Rajasthan Royals who were virtually written off, surprised everyone by reaching the finals and eventually winning it also. Credit of that win surely goes to Shane Warne , captain and coach for Rajasthan Royals, who did a good job ...

No, I don't want an answer from you. I guess most of us have answered this many times. Actually reason for this post is that this question was asked to a kid in one of reality shows happening on the TV these days. The answer which came left me both amused and wondering. The name of the kid, the show or the channel is not important, what's important is here ... Judge: What does your father do? Kid: Morning walk, goes out in car ... ... Judge: No, I was asking what is his profession or business? Kid: Politics. Incidentally kid's father was in the audience and camera was pointing towards him :) ... and he was equally amused as the rest.

All lights and other electrical appliances are switched off at my home. I was standing in the balcony of my apartment and it looks quite dark outside with just the street lights on. It started to rain here (New Delhi, India) around 8:15 pm IST, so I enjoyed my earth hour with cool breeze and wind, and occasional natural lighting. Hope we made a difference today for a better tomorrow.

Earth Hour , which started from Sydney in 2007, is an annual international event since 2008 to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It calls for the participants (individuals, organizations and government) to switch off all non-essential lights and electrical appliances for just 60 minutes. You do not have to plunge your world into darkness but just need to eliminate the non-essential usage of electricity for those 60 minutes. More of a symbolic event to spread the awareness and take the actions beyond those 60 minutes. The next Earth Hour is scheduled on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm, your local time. New Delhi and Mumbai are official participating cities from India in Earth Hour 2009 but you can participate from wherever you are. Let's do our bit! Earth Hour @ WWW: Earth Hour Global site - http://www.earthhour.org/ Earth Hour: Vote Earth - http://www.voteearth2009.org/ Earth Hour India site - http://www.earthhour.in/ Earth Hour 2009 India Orkut...

Slumdog Millionaire ... a truly entertaining fantasy. If you have not experienced it yet then that's the first thing you should do instead of reading further. With 8 Academy Awards , 4 Golden Globe Awards and 7 BAFTA Awards , the film itself has lived its reel-life story in real-life. I had seen this movie on its release in US and two things made a lasting impression on my mind that I am writing in retrospect. First is the unique story about how so many unrelated and tragic events can help Jamal, the protagonist, answer the tough quiz questions. Kudos to Simon Beaufoy . The second is the acting done by the child actors from the Mumbai slum, very effortless. And now there is a third, 3 Oscars coming to India! The movie had its share of noise when it was released in India. There was a debate on the way slums and harsh realities of the life in the underbelly of Mumbai were shown. Then there was discussion about whether this was a India film or a foreign film. But why these questions...

I hope Holi was colourful and exciting for everyone. Today I watched a movie which has its name related to the festival of Holi , though the storyline has nothing to do with the festival. Gulaal ... a slow but fascinating storyline. The story revolves around student politics while also touching many other issues including campus ragging, caste biases among others in an interesting way. Set in the backdrop of varied Rajasthan terrain storyline is bit slow but is watchable till the end for the characters and actors who play them. Kay Kay Menon as always gives a wonderful performance. Moving to another Kay Kay Menon movie ... The Stoneman Murders , which I had watched few weeks back. This one is based on the real-life serial murders of hapless footpath dwellers in Mumbai during early 80s. The Stoneman was a name given by the popular English language print media of Kolkata to an alleged serial killer who menaced the streets of that city in 1989. The Kolkata killings had a striking simil...